Statement of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, HE Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, on the occassion of the send-off of the ASEOWA Nigeria Corps and the Launch of the Africa Againts Ebola fundraising campaign

3 December 2014, LAGOS

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY 
Excellencies, Minister of Health, Dr. Khalliru Alhassan
Excellencies, Representatives of the Governors of Lagos and of the River State Representatives of the Nigerian Government, the Centre for Disease Control, Health officials
Representatives from the Private Sector and the Mobile Network Operators
Ms. Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, Special Envoy on Gender of the African Development Bank
My brothers sharing the stage, Aliko Dangote and Strive Masiyiwa
Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps
The ASEOWA Nigerian Corps of Volunteers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
My Fellow Africans
The Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is unprecedented, in terms of location, its duration, the number of infections and deaths, and the panic and fear it caused globally.
It severely impacts on families, health workers and women, who are at the frontline of the disease, and it interrupts the schooling of children.
But, the courage of the people, the efforts of governments and the heroism of health workers and volunteers, have given rise to hope and determination, that working together we can stop Ebola.
Our coordinated, comprehensive and solidarity in this crisis is therefore necessary.
Most important, as a result of the severe strain on health workers, we require health personnel (doctors, technicians, clinicians, epidimiologists, nurses) that can help with the immediate and urgent interventions.
Less than a month ago, the AU convened a Business Roundtable on Ebola in Addis Ababa, to discuss how we can work together to scale up our efforts to deploy larger numbers of health workers under the banner of ASEOWA. We agreed to work together to mobilise resources so that by the end of the year we have 1000 or more health workers in the field, fighting the disease.
The Private sector responded to this call for solidarity with enthusiasm, and I am pleased to announce that the Africa Against Ebola Solidarity Trust has been registered, and we have received financial pledges and donations from a Founders list of sixteen (16) companies/groups of companies and families:
1. the MTN Group
2. the Dangote Group and Foundation
3. Econet Wireless Global Limited
4. the Motsepe Family
5. Afriexim Bank
6. the Stenbeck Family
7. Coca Cola Africa and Eurasia
8. Quality Group
9. United Bank for Africa
10. Barclays Africa Group Limited
11. Vitol Group of Companies and Vivo Energy
12. Old Mutual
13. Nedbank Group
14. Shoreline Natural Resources Limited
15. Syngenta ; and
16. Vodafone, Safaricom and Vodacom
In addition, the African Development Bank pledged 10 million USD towards this combined effort.
The companies and the Bank made these financial commitments, and along with others such as Standard Chartered Bank, Quality Group, Millicom, Deloitte, Coca Cola, Kinnevik, Appleby, and others are contributing their competence and networks towards the solidarity effort to stop Ebola. These contributions are in addition to generous financial and other donations already made to the three countries directly.
At the Roundtable, we announced a fundraising campaign by mobile network operators to raise resources from African citizens to stop Ebola. We are today launching the Africa Against Ebola Campaign, where Africans from all walks of life can donate, by responding to their local cellphone operator and SMS STOP EBOLA to the number 7979. Donations can also be made through the Africa Against Ebola website.
As we launch this campaign, our special thanks go to the companies who helped drive the initiative : Airtel, Econet Wireless, Etisalat, Tigo, MTN, Orange, Safaricom, Vodacom and Vodafone Ghana. We thank the Ministeries and Regulators of Member States who responded to our plea to make this possible.
We call on other mobile network operators across the continent to join the campaign and providing ordinary Africans with an avenue to help stop Ebola.
Ladies and Gentlemen
Our strongest gratitude goes towards the women and men you see behind me today, the ASEOWA volunteers. They have just completed their pre-deployment training and will be joining the volunteers from the African Union already in the field in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The ASEOWA volunteers, working with the health officials, workers and volunteers from the three countries, along with all other volunteers like those from Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross, Samaritan's Purse, and others, are at the frontlines of the efforts to stop Ebola.
We thank you for your courage, commitment and for embodifying the spirit of Pan African solidarity. We thank the Federal Government of Nigeria for supporting the deployment of the ASEOWA Nigeria Corps, and for the contributions of the various states to this effort.
We congratulate the Nigerian Government and People, for mounting a very effective public health response to the threat of Ebola, resulting in their Ebola free status.
We hope the airlines in the region and continent will follow the example of Pan African solidarity showed by the Nigerian health workers and by Air I’Voire and others, by resuming flights to the affected countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen
We in the African Union are determined to honour our pledge that we shall deploy a thousand or more workers by the end of this year.
But we need the support of the private sector, and call on African business to take the lead to organise national fundraising events in all Member states.
We need the support of our citizens, to SMS their donations in response to the campaign of their mobile network operator.
We need the support of our governments, to work with us to realise the pledges they made to provide health workers and volunteers.
Together we can stop Ebola
Asanta Sane !
Merci becoup!
Shokran!
Obrigado!
Gracias!